A searching, intimate guide to how Jewish tradition holds suffering with meaning and presence.
A thoughtful set of reflections from religious leaders and others on how Jewish history, teachings, and traditions engage with crisis, tragedy, and their fallout.
In this essay collection, carefully curated and edited by rabbis Danziger and David, an array of Jewish thinkers and spiritual leaders explores how trauma—individual and communal—interacts with Jewish culture, teaching, and belief. The October 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel are strongly present throughout in essays that highlight the pain of victimization, anger toward leadership, and a rise in antisemitism. In one essay, arguably the collection’s best, rabbi Wendy Zierler puts the tragedy into a context of classic Israeli songs, drawing parallels to the Kaddish prayer while illustrating how one has a capacity not only to mourn but “to bring people back.” Other entries address other crises, such as the 9/11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the Tree of Life and Parkland mass shootings, and the isolating agony of Covid-19; the Yom Kippur War and the Holocaust are also addressed. Editor and avid runner David recounts his first time participating in the Boston Marathon, which coincided with the horrific 2013 bombing. Just as affecting are essays of private struggle, including Danziger’s candid reflection on living with chronic cancer, and rabbi Debra R. Hachen’s account of caring for a spouse with Alzheimer’s disease while questioning whether she could meet what the role required. Although a shared faith binds these essays together, their tone shifts dramatically—some are passionate or outraged, others more measured and thoughtful, and still others take a scholarly tone. Nearly every essay is anchored by ritual or communal liturgy, which offer comfort or give shape to unresolved pain. Most resist easy answers and frame trauma not as something people “get over,” but rather “integrate…into our life view.” What emerges isn’t a theology of trauma, but a testimony to how Jewish practice, language, and leadership can respond to crises without closure. Though aimed at Jewish readers, the collection’s emotional honesty will resonate with anyone interested in how tradition can help one face what can’t necessarily be fixed.
A searching, intimate guide to how Jewish tradition holds suffering with meaning and presence.Pub Date: June 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780881236620
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Central Conference of American Rabbis Press
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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